All They Have Is Hate
Shelby Steele on what the Palestinians really want in the WSJ:
Our problem in the West is understandable. We don't want to lose more moral authority than we already have. So we choose not to see certain things that are right in front of us. For example, we ignore that the Palestinians--and for that matter much of the Middle East--are driven to militancy and war not by legitimate complaints against Israel or the West but by an internalized sense of inferiority. If the Palestinians got everything they want--a sovereign nation and even, let's say, a nuclear weapon--they would wake the next morning still hounded by a sense of inferiority. For better or for worse, modernity is now the measure of man.And the quickest cover for inferiority is hatred. The problem is not me; it is them. And in my victimization I enjoy a moral and human grandiosity--no matter how smart and modern my enemy is, I have the innocence that defines victims. I may be poor but my hands are clean. Even my backwardness and poverty only reflect a moral superiority, while my enemy's wealth proves his inhumanity.
In other words, my hatred is my self-esteem. This must have much to do with why Yasser Arafat rejected Ehud Barak's famous Camp David offer of 2000 in which Israel offered more than 90% of what the Palestinians had demanded. To have accepted that offer would have been to forgo hatred as consolation and meaning. Thus it would have plunged the Palestinians--and by implication the broader Muslim world--into a confrontation with their inferiority relative to modernity. Arafat knew that without the Jews to hate an all-defining cohesion would leave the Muslim world. So he said no to peace.
And this recalcitrance in the Muslim world, this attraction to the consolations of hatred, is one of the world's great problems today--whether in the suburbs of Paris and London, or in Kabul and Karachi, or in Queens, N.Y., and Gaza. The fervor for hatred as deliverance may not define the Muslim world, but it has become a drug that consoles elements of that world in the larger competition with the West. This is the problem we in the West have no easy solution to, and we scapegoat Israel--admonish it to behave better--so as not to feel helpless. We see our own vulnerability there.
This reminded me of the "black hole" story. Some people feel the need to always be the victim, by any means necessary.
Dwatney at June 22, 2010 5:38 AM
It may appear to be inferiority to an external viewer, but I suspect if you ask them it is superiority. They have the literal word of Allah exhorting them to jihad.
And what do we have to top that?
I R A Darth Aggie at June 22, 2010 5:58 AM
Pornography,
lingere,
hooters(waitresses not the food)
nipple piercings,
sausage, bacon, baby back ribs
celebrity sex tapes,
television,
medicine,
electrical power grids,
white water rafting
Shall I go on?
lujlp at June 22, 2010 7:12 AM
Let's change the groups involved in the dynamic of perpetuating discord and see how it fits:
"And the quickest cover for inferiority is hatred. The problem is not WOMEN; it is MEN. And ACCORDING TO FEMINISTS in their victimization WOMEN enjoy a moral and human grandiosity AS COMPARED TO MEN -- they have the innocence that defines victims.
In other words, FEMINISTS PROMOTE hatred of MEN to SUBSTITUTE FOR WOMEN'S self-esteem. This must have much to do with why FEMINISTS rejected REAL EQUALITY with MEN. To have accepted that offer would have been to forgo hatred as consolation and meaning. Thus it would have plunged the FEMINISTS --and by implication WOMEN IN GENERAL --into a confrontation with their AREAS OF inferiority relative to MASCULINITY. FEMINISTS knew that without the MEN to hate an all-defining cohesion would leave the WOMEN'S MOVEMENT. So they said no to TRUE EQUALITY AND GENDER HARMONY.
And this recalcitrance in the world OF FEMINISM, this attraction to the consolations of hatred, is one of the world's great problems today. The fervor for hatred as deliverance may not define WOMEN IN GENERAL, but it has become a drug PUSHED BY FEMINISM that consoles TOO MANY WOMEN (AND, AS A RESULT, EVER GROWING NUMBERS OF MEN) in the larger RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE SEXES. This is the problem we in the West have no easy solution to, and OBAMA AND OTHER FEMINISTS AND PUSSY-WHIPPED GELDINGS scapegoat ABSENT FATHERS --admonish MEN to behave better--so as not to ALLOW WOMEN to feel helpless. WOMEN see their own vulnerability there."
Does it fit? Like a GLOVE!!
Jay R at June 22, 2010 11:51 AM
Oops!
It should read, "so as not to ALLOW WOMEN to feel IRRESPONSIBLE. WOMEN see their own CULPABILITY there."
Jay R at June 22, 2010 11:54 AM
Hee, hee. Are you in for it, now, Jay. I can hear those knees jerking, way down here in Mexico
irlandes at June 22, 2010 3:30 PM
"... the Palestinians--and for that matter much of the Middle East--are driven to militancy and war not by legitimate complaints against Israel or the West but by an internalized sense of inferiority."
But Muslim complaints are legitimate to them ... that the entire world isn't Muslim and all of the infidels aren't dead. This is the only solution that they are after.
This is the west's greatest mistake in this regard. We think that if we can apply western logic to the "problem" that piece will be at hand. Until we come to understand what they are really after, we will be unable to affect any change.
AllenS at June 23, 2010 10:08 AM
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